#science forum

- Melissa Hinter

Melissa Hinter spoke at the Science Forum this Friday on how UT is tackling sustainability initiatives. I learned that “wicked problems” do not have clear solutions, have multiple causes, and are difficult to define. Some examples of wicked problems would be climate change, obesity, poverty, hunger, and more. She suggests that sharing knowledge across disciplines, collaborating with communities, and engaged learning are ways Knoxville can contribute to solving our local sustainability problems. I agree that sharing knowledge across disciplines is a wonderful idea. It would be awesome if there was a place we could all pool our knowledge together across different fields and careers like a website. Often times it is difficult to find what research is being done unless we know about specific companies to look for.

UT is doing a lot through the office of sustainability and with student research done in the sustainability major. If other majors were to help pool our knowledge, i think we could make more significant research and help divide and conquer the larger questions as she suggested earlier about collaborating across disciplines. I have always had a love for sustainable design and volunteer work so it was cool to see other opportunities i could do on my own outside of my school work.

- Susan Kalisz

Susan Kalisz spoke at the Science forum last Friday about the effects of deer population on biodiversity. She gave a talk that i’ve heard a lot as a landscape designer: climate change. Kalisz gave an interesting perspective on how ungulate species are indicators for forest health and how they have become a large problem. The combination of climate change, habitat fragmentation, invasive species introductions, and downgrading have all contributed to the declining biodiversity in forests. Deer populations are rising because the predictors are being controlled by humans, but deer populations are protected in urban areas because of hunting laws. Ungulate overpopulation has obvious problems such as further reducing biodiversity and native species.  

I found that understanding species interactions can help me understand and solve problems that are happening because of these interactions. One thing i could do as a landscape designer would be to limit the number of invasive plant species in my designs. Many invasive problems arise from offshoots of landscaping design. In addition, taking preventative measures like putting up a fence can have significant contributions for biodiversity. Restoration could control invasive species, assess natives, and incorporate these fences. I also learned of the Smokey Mountain Wildflower Pilgrimage that happens in April! I don’t have time to go this year, but i think it is a wonderful opportunity to meet specialist and experience the trails and landscape with an expert. I plan to attend next year.  

- Lisa Reyes Mason

Lisa Reyes Mason spoke this past Friday at the Science Forum. She is a professor here at UT that does a lot of social work to find climate change issues in the area and engages the public to make them more aware. Climate change is not a new topic to me and many of the things she spoke about, i had heard before. However, she did mention things like smart stormwater and other resources i haven’t heard of like the climate visuals website.  Many problems communities face can be addressed through social solutions such as adopting new technology, teaching kids, and encouraging more sustainable lifestyles. 

Perhaps the biggest take away for me was her mention of the importance of partnerships to make projects more successful and useful. Even for people such as me, partnerships on research projects can make research more available and useful outside of academia. In addition, climate change can be addressed across many different fields of study and it is important to work together to pool our knowledge in order to get the best results. As a landscape architect i should keep in mind that partnerships can make a project more successful and i should be knowledgeable about the kinds of associations and companies that are looking for this kind of thing. Mason is publishing a book later this year that i am interested in looking at to see what research she has found in her field. 

My own research on how smart stormwater works. 

Partnerships slide from the lecture.